Floating boom devices for containing spills of fluids such as crude oil on open water are well-known. Examples of typical devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,300,856 to Magoon et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,248,547 to Brown. Such devices are manufactured in sections and are delivered to the spill site and are pulled into location around the spill by a marine vessel. Sections of the devices are connected together to provide sufficient length to surround the oil spill.
The materials used to construct the disclosed devices are relatively heavy and bulky. The resulting devices are supposed to be relatively long term barriers, but in fact, they are effective for a limited duration.
While such devices are reasonably effective in containing oil spills, they suffer from several shortcomings. First, the materials used to manufacture the disclosed devices result in boom devices that are expensive ($25-$30 per foot) and that are not easily stored.
The relatively bulky nature of the disclosed boom devices causes an additional problem with their use. To be effective, the containment boom devices need to be placed around the oil spill as quickly as possible after the spill. Limits of available storage space act to restrict the length of boom devices that can be stored at any given location. Thus, a large oil spill can require a greater length of boom device than is readily availale due to the restrictions on the length of boom devices that can be stored. In such cases, addition boom device sections must be transported to the spill site and the relatively bulky nature of the disclosed boom devices also acts to limit the amount of boom device that can be transported to the spill site in a brief period of time. The recent oil spill in Prince William Sound in Alaska illustrates the problems caused by delays in storing and transporting containment boom devices.
Attempts have been made to lessen the bulk of the boom devices. For example U.S. Pat. No. 3,563,036 to Smith et al. uses an inflation means to inflate float sections only when the boom device is needed. The disclosed device continues to require substantial storage space and is subject to the same limitation of other premanufactured devices.
Additionally, since the disclosed devices are premanufactured, they generally cannot be adjusted to reflect local conditions of a specific spill, such as the fluid spilled, and the water and weather conditions.
As illustrated by the present discussion, there are a number of desirable features for a floating boom device for containing fluid spills on open water. It would be desirable to be able to have a boom device with a plurality of float sections that are interconnected in a continuous manner which has attached below an elongated weighted section, where said boom device can be manufactured from its constituent components at the site of an oil spill, and pulling means. Further, it would be desirable have the boom device to be manufactured from components that are relatively inexpensive, readily available, and relatively easy to store and transport.
While the above discussion was centered on floating boom devices for containing fluid spills on open water that are manufactured at the spill site, it is not intended that the invention be limited to this situation. It will be obvious from the description that follows that the present invention will be useful in other applications with problems common to those described herein.